Joel Bagan is only a relative newcomer to Irish football teams, but he has already had a few months of playing under one of our most famous managers.

For it was Mick McCarthy who gave Joel his chance with Cardiff City, and alerted the FAI to his Irish grandmother, from Glanmire in Cork, which is how he is in the squad to face Italy at Tallaght Stadium on Friday in a Euro 2023 Under-21 qualifier.

Bagan had to miss September’s international matches with this team because of missing paperwork. “It’s all done now and I’m here and I’m raring to go,” says the left-back, who clearly still has a lot of respect for McCarthy, since he was let go by Cardiff.

“Yeah, Mick was great with me. Obviously the link with Ireland, he's helped me out with that. And from the first game of the season in the Championship, he chucked me in and I got a good run of games, so I've got a lot to thank him for.”

But not even Bagan could save McCarthy’s bacon when the going got tough. “We started the season well and we were doing alright but yeah, we went on a bad run, but the last two or three games now, we've started to turn it around,” he added.

Is there a difference in the style of play in the English Championship versus international level? “Oh yes, I found the Championship a lot more physical. International football can be a lot more tactical at times, so that's the main difference,” he said.

“It can certainly feel different at times,” Bagan agrees. “Every game is different. You have to approach it in different ways, but I've really enjoyed every game I've played for Cardiff and Ireland.”

And now he’s up for the challenge of taking on Italy on Friday and then Sweden, again in Tallaght, next Tuesday.

“They're the two best teams in the group at the minute, they're first and second in the table. So they'll be tough games - but we're definitely going into them to try and take six points out of it all,” Bagan added.